Winners of International Physics Olympiad are also JEE Advanced 2024 qualifiers

The Indian delegation included gold medalists Rhythm Kedia and Ved Lahoti, followed by silver medalists Akarsh Raj Sahay, Bhavya Tiwari and Jaiveer Singh.

The five-hour theoretical competition had three problems based on a simple model of global warming due to the greenhouse effect, trapping of ions using the Paul trap and Doppler cooling techniques, and the dynamics and stability of an accreting binary star system.

Sharing his experience of the International Physics Olympiad, Bhavya Tiwari said, “It was a nice experience exploring a new country and meeting with international students across the globe who carry the same intellect and interest on the subject. Iran and Iranian people both were good and they had amazing hospitality.”

The silver medalist also said that he has been participating in the Olympiads from an early age. He also reached the training camp for the International Mathematics Olympiad 2024 but could not represent India. The JEE Advanced ranker said that the Indian education system does not consider the practical side of the subject particularly for Olympiad levels. “The level of the competition and questions are really high. In our education system, we are more inclined towards theory and does not emphasis on practical side, which is needed for a competitive competitions like IPO. If we focus on the practical side, more Indian students would be able to represent the country and we can get more medals in the future,” said Tiwari.

Another medalist Jaiveer Singh who ranked AIR 89 said that from Class 8 he applied and prepared for various Olympiads. “Then I explored and got to know about various international level science competitions,” said he. When asked whether JEE preparation supported the knowledge of physics Olympiad, he replied, “The syllabus is quite overlapping and JEE puts a foundation of the subject. For the entire Class 11 and 12 , I studied for JEE which boosted my level of physics and helped me to appear in the Olympiad.”

Kedia, who is a gold medalist, got to know about the global event from his brother who was shortlisted for the Olympiad but it was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. The 18-year-old is pursuing computer science from IIT Bombay. “Iran is a good country and they love and respect India. We were also allotted a guide who helped us explore the country,” said the boy who secured AIR 4 in JEE Advanced.

Silver medalist Akarsh Raj Sahay will take up his higher education in the Oxford University in physics. Sahay managed the Oxford University preparation and admission along with JEE and Olympiad preparation. When asked how he took time for other activities, he said, “It does take away a lot of time but if you prioritise the work you can do that. I used to make this a habit to do a particular activity in the next five days. This worked for me and I feel it was manageable for me.”

Sahay has been giving the Olympiad since Class 9 and visited Poland as a part of the International Astronomy Olympiad.

In the country-wise medals tally, India was placed at the fourth position, jointly with Vietnam. China came at the top followed by Russia and Romania at second and third place, respectively. In all, 18 gold, 35 silver, and 53 bronze medals were awarded. A total of 193 students from 43 countries participated in the competition.